1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a fuel cell and a method of operating the fuel cell.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell forms a unit cell, in which an membrane electrode assembly (MEA) is sandwiched between a pair of separators, the membrane electrode assembly being formed by disposing an anode electrode and a cathode electrode on respective sides of an electrolyte membrane which is a polymer ion exchange membrane.
In the unit cell, a fuel gas passage for supplying a fuel gas to the anode electrode is formed between one of the separators and the membrane electrode assembly, and an oxidant gas passage for supplying an oxidant gas to the cathode electrode is formed between the other of the separators and the membrane electrode assembly. In addition, a cooling medium passage for circulating a cooling medium in the direction along a power generation surface is formed between separators which are adjacent to each other.
In the fuel cell, what is called a skip cooling structure, in which a cooling medium passage is provided for each group of multiple unit cells, may be adopted (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-134996). Consequently, decreased number of cooling medium passages allows the number of separators to be reduced, and thus the entire fuel cell stack in the stacking direction can be reduced in size.